Teen movies and horror may seem like strange bedfellows, but I always thought they went hand in hand. You can look back from slasher movies to vampire comedies like Fright Night and The Lost Boys all the way to I Was a Teenage Werewolf and The Blob and see the correlation.
Young adults are the primary audience for horror and they frequented the passion pit drive-ins more than older people.
The eighties were a prime period for both types of films. Sometimes together, as I cited above, and other times separated.
Heartbreak Hotel is one of the most critically disdained teen movies from a time when serious and not-so-serious reviewers tended to lambaste them. Chris Columbus made his mark as a screenwriter, often penning movies that mixed teens with horror and fantasy. Big business was made from Spielberg-produced movies like Gremlins, The Goonies, and Young Sherlock Holmes.
When Columbus discovered directing it was directly in the teen realm. His debut, Adventures in Babysitting, is a crowd-pleaser, mostly due to a winning performance by Elizabeth Shue and a very funny scene in a Chicago Blues bar. Columbus followed with Heartbreak Hotel, a movie that made many critics' worst-of-the-year list. I, needless to say, love it.
Of course Heartbreak Hotel is preposterous. It doesn't pretend to be anything else. An improbable if not outright impossible story of a teen kidnapping Elvis Presley to cheer up his mother is absurd to the point of surreality. And yet it somehow works.
Heartbreak Hotel is sweet, wistful, and funny, with great music and an overabundant amount of nostalgia.
I'm not even an Elvis fan. Growing up in the seventies, as I did, Elvis was about as cool as Lawrence Welk. His undignified death only multiplied the disdain we all felt.
Still, before the exaggerated drawl and swagger, before the terrible movies, before the grotesque fame, that first Elvis Presley release is simply a great rock and roll record.
David Keith, a good actor who never got the success he deserved, doesn't look much like The King of Rock and Roll, but he does a wonderful job as Elvis.
Captured by young rock and roller Charlie Schlatter, Elvis agrees to accompany the boy to his house. Shenanigans ensue, and the film culminates at a high school talent show where Elvis and Schlatter perform a hard rocking rendition of, you guessed it, "Heartbreak Hotel".
Charlie Schlatter is good as the teen. He's another who never really became a star. It didn't help that Schlatter had the unwinnable job of starring in a Ferris Beuller's Day Off TV series.
Tuesday Weld, who appeared with Elvis in Wild in the Country, is the Mom. Supposedly she and E had a brief romantic fling, which must have been a nightmare.
In an adorable performance, Tuesday's young daughter is played by Angela Goethals. Elvis helps the little girl overcome her fear of Slimy Soul Suckers. Goethals is of interest to horror/slasher fans. She plays the journalist from the great Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon.
Chris Columbus went on to bigger but not necessarily better things. He saw great success with Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, and the first two Harry Potter movies. Heartbreak Hotel is, by far, my favorite of his films.
I can't be the only Heartbreak Hotel fan. Kino Lorber did a blu-ray, which is sold out and out of print. Used copies are fairly expensive at the secondary markets.
You may have dismissed Heartbreak Hotel, or perhaps believed the anti-hype from the critics. You should give it a look. Hopefully you'll find the movie as delightful as I do.
Written by Mark Sieber
Young adults are the primary audience for horror and they frequented the passion pit drive-ins more than older people.
The eighties were a prime period for both types of films. Sometimes together, as I cited above, and other times separated.
Heartbreak Hotel is one of the most critically disdained teen movies from a time when serious and not-so-serious reviewers tended to lambaste them. Chris Columbus made his mark as a screenwriter, often penning movies that mixed teens with horror and fantasy. Big business was made from Spielberg-produced movies like Gremlins, The Goonies, and Young Sherlock Holmes.
When Columbus discovered directing it was directly in the teen realm. His debut, Adventures in Babysitting, is a crowd-pleaser, mostly due to a winning performance by Elizabeth Shue and a very funny scene in a Chicago Blues bar. Columbus followed with Heartbreak Hotel, a movie that made many critics' worst-of-the-year list. I, needless to say, love it.
Of course Heartbreak Hotel is preposterous. It doesn't pretend to be anything else. An improbable if not outright impossible story of a teen kidnapping Elvis Presley to cheer up his mother is absurd to the point of surreality. And yet it somehow works.
Heartbreak Hotel is sweet, wistful, and funny, with great music and an overabundant amount of nostalgia.
I'm not even an Elvis fan. Growing up in the seventies, as I did, Elvis was about as cool as Lawrence Welk. His undignified death only multiplied the disdain we all felt.
Still, before the exaggerated drawl and swagger, before the terrible movies, before the grotesque fame, that first Elvis Presley release is simply a great rock and roll record.
David Keith, a good actor who never got the success he deserved, doesn't look much like The King of Rock and Roll, but he does a wonderful job as Elvis.
Captured by young rock and roller Charlie Schlatter, Elvis agrees to accompany the boy to his house. Shenanigans ensue, and the film culminates at a high school talent show where Elvis and Schlatter perform a hard rocking rendition of, you guessed it, "Heartbreak Hotel".
Charlie Schlatter is good as the teen. He's another who never really became a star. It didn't help that Schlatter had the unwinnable job of starring in a Ferris Beuller's Day Off TV series.
Tuesday Weld, who appeared with Elvis in Wild in the Country, is the Mom. Supposedly she and E had a brief romantic fling, which must have been a nightmare.
In an adorable performance, Tuesday's young daughter is played by Angela Goethals. Elvis helps the little girl overcome her fear of Slimy Soul Suckers. Goethals is of interest to horror/slasher fans. She plays the journalist from the great Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon.
Chris Columbus went on to bigger but not necessarily better things. He saw great success with Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, and the first two Harry Potter movies. Heartbreak Hotel is, by far, my favorite of his films.
I can't be the only Heartbreak Hotel fan. Kino Lorber did a blu-ray, which is sold out and out of print. Used copies are fairly expensive at the secondary markets.
You may have dismissed Heartbreak Hotel, or perhaps believed the anti-hype from the critics. You should give it a look. Hopefully you'll find the movie as delightful as I do.
Written by Mark Sieber
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